Ulyanovsk. Mikhail Gutseriev, the philanthropist, assisted in restoration of Cathedral of the Ascension of the Savior in Ulyanovsk region.
The Cathedral was established on the basis of the old church in July 26, 1844.
20 years later a massive part of Simbirsk was destroyed by the great fire, but the Cathedral remained intact and was restored soon. Nevertheless the eastern part of the cathedral was taken to pieces and construction of the new cathedral designed by Rosetti engineer was started. In 1935 the cathedral was destroyed during the time when all the holy places started to be ruined. Much later it was decided that the Cathedral should be restored.
It took a long time to choose the place for the new cathedral, the cornerstone was laid in 1994, this was also the time when the place of construction was consecrated. The foundation was almost completed, when in 1998 the financial crisis made them stop construction.
The construction was resumed only in 2006 thanks to Patronate Aleksiy who obtained the support of the Government as well as attracted financial donations from the philanthropists.
In total the construction required above 350 mln rubles and donations of RussNeft owner made up above 250 mln rubles. It is worth mentioning that OAO Ulyanovskneft, Russneft subsidiary, operates on the territory of Ulyanovsk region and it develops 39 oilfields in 6 areas of the region.
Along with that many organizations together with ordinary people took part in construction of the cathedral. At the present time the construction has been completed and the cathedral is purchasing the churchware, the charity foundation SAFMAR allocated 29 mln rubles to that. The cathedral will be consecrated in May. This cathedral is a place of alliance of people and this is a merit of Mikhail Gutseriev.
